​Heather Ehlers has been a professional actress for over 30 years. She appeared on Broadway in Born Yesterday, and starred Off-Broadway in Paradise for the Worried, Educating Rita, and Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. Other theatre credits include: The Clean House (Theater Works, CA), King Lear (The Center for New Theater at CalArts, CA), The Manson Family (Lincoln Center, NY), The Body of Bourne (Mark Taper Forum, CA), The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Dimly Perceived Threats to the System, Freedomland (South Coast Rep, CA), The Memory of Wa​ter (Steppenwolf, Chicago), Angeles In America (Intiman, Seattle), Whoʼs Afraid of Virginia Wolf? (Hartford Stage, CT), Ourselves Alone, Crime and Punishment, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, The Philadelphia Story, The Taming of the Shrew (Arena Stage, DC), as well as several movement based performances in New York City (PS122, MTG, HOME, Folk Arts Center, The Kitchen). Her international theater credits include the role of Edmund in King Lear (France), Sonia in Theyʼre Playing Our Song (India), and Abigail in The Crucible (Israel). Ms. Ehlers has guest starred on a number of TV shows including Numb3rs, Frasier, Murphy Brown, JAG, and The Tracey Ullman Show. Film credits include Red Letters, Iʼll Remember April, and Broadcast News. She starred in award-winning short films Hope Street and A-litter-a-tion (awarded for writing as well as best actress). She also performed with Michael Jackson in his film/video Ghosts. Most recently, Ms. Ehlers wrote and performed her one-woman piece, SPIN, which was produced in L.A., and sold out in New York City as part of the 2011 United Solo Theater Festival. She performed SPIN again in N.Y. in 2012.Ms. Ehlers has a MFA from NYUʼs Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Acting Program. She was a company member at Arena Stage (Washington, DC) for two years where she performed in ten plays, and taught summer acting workshops at Colorado College. Ms. Ehlers worked at Hunter College (CUNY) for three years where she taught Acting, Voice and Movement. Since 2001 she has been teaching Movement for Actors full-time in the School of Theater at California Institute of the Arts. In the summers of 2005 and 2006, she co-led an artistic workshop with Erik Ehn in Kigali, Rwanda, where she accompanied a group of students and professionals during an International Arts Exchange Program to study the 1994 genocide and explore a means of creatively responding to it. Afterwards, she created a short film documenting the experience that was shown at a gallery exhibit at CalArts. In 2012, Ms. Ehlers developed and led a three-week intensive program for The CAP(Community Arts Partnership) /Monrovia School District Summer Theater Program in which 40 participants (aged 12 - 17) learned basic acting, voice and movement, and created an original performance. She was assisted by four CalArts students whom she mentored in the process of teaching, directing and producing the final public performance piece.Ms. Ehlers has been practicing and teaching yoga for over 25 years. She is a certified instructor and teaches classes in Integral Hatha, Vinyasa Flow, Kundalini, and Yoga Works style yoga. She also studies various forms of dance. Ms. Ehlers studied with Gabrielle Roth (creator of the 5Rhythms) and was certified in 2011 as a 5Rhythms teacher. She has studied Spanish Sevillanas with Maria Angeles, Capoeira with Mestre Amen Santo, the Life/Art Process with Anna Halprin, SoulMotion with Vinn Marti, Continuum Movement with Emilie Conrad and Susan Harper, and Butoh Dance at Body Weather Lab with Roxanne Steinberg and Oguri. She performed a solo dance piece, Calluna Vulgaris, in the Flower of the Season 2009 at the Electric Lodge (Venice, CA). In 2013, Ms. Ehlers collaborated with Stephan Koplowitz and performed as a lead dancer in The Weather In The Room choreographed by Colin Connor as part of the CalArts Winter Dance Concert presented at REDCAT in L.A. ​She has most recently studied Open Floor Movement with Kathy Altman, Lori Saltzman, and Andrea Juhan,Phd, and she is currently a certified teacher and working member of Open Floor International.

Professional BIO:

Heather Ehlers

Awake​Motion

Heather is passionate about sharing her joy of movement and artistic expression. She is committed to supporting others in finding authenticity, creativity, and connection.

Through dance, theater, and yoga (as well as multitude of other movement modalities), Heather encourages mind/body/spirit connection so that people can access their most vulnerable, wild, instinctive, wise self. She supports people in cultivating fortitude with flexibility to access fully embodied, deeply authentic, creative expression.

Among her many identities, Heather regards herself as a woman, mother, teacher, yogini, dancer, performer, writer, mentor, meditator, and aspiring Compassionate Communication practitioner. She grew up in L.A .and spent over a decade in New York City. She has traveled the world performing, exploring, and simply checking things out. She currently resides in Santa Monica.

​Heather has many associates and is a member of several tribes. She has participated in and facilitated circles throughout her life (a buddhist meditation group, a secular meditation group, Intenders of the Highest Good, Goddess ceremonies, a women's writing circle, a women's book group, an NVC practice group...and more). She has studied with several sublime master teachers, though her greatest teachings have come from her two (now grown) children. Heather is grateful for all opportunities to continue to investigate what it means to be human.